Intraday Market Update, Monday, 10/28/2002 11:00:00 AM ET

Dell and Citibank set stage for higher open

by Jeff Bailey

Shares of Dell Computer (NASDAQ:DELL) are being bid higher at
$29.70 in pre-market trading, up 65-cents or 2.2%, after CEO
Michael Dell spoke to reporters in Tokyo saying that the company
is seeing some improvement in overall demand for computer
hardware. "Although a broad scale upgrade of computer systems
will be driven by rebounding profits," Dell has gained market
share, he said.

Shares of banking giant Citigroup (NYSE:C) $35.70 are bid higher
at $37.15, up 4% from Friday's close, after Lehman Brothers
upgraded the stock to "overweight" from "equal-weight" and raised
its price target to $46 from $43. Lehman raised their sector
view on large-cap banks to "neutral" from "negative" as macro
concerns in 4 areas (general economic, credit quality, capital
markets, and regulatory/legal) have diminished incrementally, and
believes Citigroup will be the main beneficiary of this more
positive outlook. The KBW Bank Index (BKX.X) finished Friday's
session at 761.71 after putting in a double-bottom near 610
earlier this month.

In a different broker call, Merrill Lynch is cutting their 2002-
2004 North American video game projections in light of recent
commentary from Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) $67.61 and THQ Inc.
(NASDAQ:THQI) $14.30. In addition, the firm believes it will be
challenging for publishers to post strong top-line growth in
Calendar-year 2004 without solid market share gains.

After seeing its shares plummet 41% on Friday, share of Cigna
(NYSE:CI) $37.00 are gaining $3.50 per share to $40.50 in pre-
market after the Wall Street Journal reports that dissension from
some plaintiff's lawyers has snagged a proposed $200 million
settlement between CI and hundreds of thousands of physicians who
are suing the company for its use of software that automatically
chops doctor's bills to what it calculates as more appropriate
payment.

S&P futures (sp02z) are currently gaining 9.3 points to 908.
NASDAQ futures are higher by 19.50 points at 1,012 while Dow
futures (dj02z) are higher by 95 points at 8,535.

Fair value for the S&P 500 today is $0.30. That price will not
change during the session. HL Camp & Company has their computers
set for program buying at $1.38 and set for program selling at
$-1.92. Fair value for the NASDAQ-100 today is $2.45.

For a third-straight session, Treasuries are currently finding
buyers in early morning action with the December 10-year futures
(ty02z) 113'095 +0.13% now testing their rolling over 50-day SMA
as resistance, with the 10-year YIELD ($TNX.X) falling to 4.073%.
This action may have equity bulls somewhat cautious at the open
of trading, but may also be a bullish move in Treasuries just
ahead of next week's FOMC meeting and the Fed's decision in
interest rates.